Out of a bewildering host of photo sharing services, Sharpcast looks
like the easiest one yet.

You start by downloading its free software, currently for Windows XP
only. Here's the gee-whiz part: You can then keep any number of
computers and a Web site instantly synchronized with the latest
pictures. This instant update
happens whenever any of the computers running the software goes
online to the Internet. Of course, most computers with high-speed
connections are online all the time.

Coming up later, Sharpcast will do the same instant updates for text
and calendars.

This would be more than handy when traveling: You can update an
album on a Sharpcast-provided Web site from a public computer or
your laptop, and your home and business computers will be updated at
the same time.

You can also update from so-called "smart" cell phones, like
Motorola's Q phones, the Treo 700w and a few phones from the major
cellular providers. Snap a picture with the phone and -- if you are
also on or going on the Internet and the Sharpcast software is
active -- that photo will be automatically posted to your laptop and
desktop.

We started up the Sharpcast program and dragged some photos into a
new album on one of our computers. The minute we turned around to
face our other computer, they were there. When we typed in a
caption, the new caption appeared on the other computer almost
instantly. We rotated a photo on one desktop and it rotated on the
other machine at the same time. This would have occurred even if our
computers had been a world apart, instead of next to each other.

Control rights for editing and posting belong to the originator of
the sharing Web site that Sharpcast creates. Anyone who wants to
stay up to date with your latest photos must have the free Sharpcast
software or click on a Web link you send them, but they cannot
control the contents of the site.

Since the photos reside on a Web site, adding more pictures and
making editing changes does not eat up any memory or drive space on
the computers of those using Sharpcast. The ones you want can be
saved to your local machine simply by downloading them from the
site. You just click the "export" button from within the Sharpcast
program.

To repeat: If you have loaded the software, picture updates to your
own machine are automatic. Unlike the popular
KodakGallery.com
(formerly Ofoto) or
Shutterfly.com, you do not have to go to a particular Web site.
This is true for all computers that are actively online and part of
the share list for that site.

The share group first sees thumbnail views and can then click on any
picture to enlarge it. The photos enlarge in the same resolution
they were taken, unless you prefer a compressed version. If they
wish, members of the share group can re-send the photos to others
with a click.

A question we always ask ourselves about free services is: "How does
anyone make money with this?" After all, someone has to pay the
bills. The answer is Sharpcast will offer printing services and fees
for mass storage as things progress. Sharpcast users will get 5
gigabytes of storage free for now. Check further at Sharpcast.com.

Internuts

·
EurekaCode.com: A reader who
travels through Southeast Asia, China and Japan tells us this site
is really popular in the Internet cafes. The site gives you a series
of numbers and you have to figure out the English sentence or
sentences that go with them. There is a prize fund, paid by the
advertisers, for cracking the code. As of this writing, the prize is
about $142,000 or 112,000 Euros.

·
SpotPitch.com: Here's a
limited chance to do your own commercial. Make a video for one of
the products listed and you might win $1,000 and see your commercial
used in an online advertising campaign. It's a contest, and it's
only open for the month of November. We were tempted to get an "Ant
Vacuum" because of a pitch someone did, but since we moved from
California we no longer have an ant problem.

Tips and Tricks

How to get rid of unwanted Windows programs that load automatically
when you start the computer:

Click "start" at the bottom of the Windows screen and then "run."
Type "msconfig" (without the quotes) in the blank line. Hit return
and select the "startup" tab from the menu of folders that appears.
Uncheck any box next to a program you don't want to start
automatically. If you're unsure, it's safe to choose "disable all."
The computer will still start normally. You can always go back to
msconfig and check the things you want.

The Hollywood Look at Home

If your home movies are getting bad reviews, you might like this
expert help: stashSpace.com has free templates that let you load in
your video, select some scenes and give the result a snappy
professional look. You can upload up to five hours of video directly
from a camera or a computer. Everything is free unless you want to
buy a finished DVD, which costs $15 to $19, depending on the
packaging.

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